August 2015

Close friends and family know it is not. I have loving parents and had a happy enough childhood whereas the novel is about a woman in search of her biological parents who discovers the horrible truth of their identity.

Looking backward is a major trend in Chinese fiction today - writers often set their novels in the past to reflect on Chinese history and culture. In this genre, Mo Yan’s Sandalwood Impalement (Tanxiang Xing) is not only a commercial but an ideological hit, praised by critics as a ‘masterpiece’ of ‘historical importance’ that shows China can overcome Western influence thanks to ‘Chinese tradition, Chinese reality, and Chinese mentality’ as apposed to vapid ‘universalism’ and ‘humanism’.